What Does Democracy Mean To The Chinese? [Street Interview] | ASIAN BOSS

It took our team over 6 hours to get a few sets of people on the streets of Beijing for this street interview and we did our best to get as many different views as possible. Given that we are a small media startup with very limited resources, we are simply not able to conduct street interviews in every city and every country to get the most "unbiased" (which itself is inherently subjective) answers. Rather, the purpose of our videos is to present a perspective and trigger a meaningful conversation/debate. If you consider yourself a part of the Asian Boss community, keep your discussions civil and try to understand different points of view. Thanks for watching and stay curious.

People nowadays don't like to distinguish democracy and freedom... But actually, they are different.

How about redoing a similar interview but in Taiwan?

India is considered the largest democracy country in the world but still practices caste system and western countries have no problem with it.

As a Chinese who studies abroad since teenage time, it is reli a mixed feeling because I see and hear two perspectives about my country and it’s always all negative from the western side, but every time when I go back to China, life there is always safe and colourful, now ppl don’t bring wallets because we can pay for anything with phones or cards, the infrastructure in cities are also extremely good and convenient, the high-speed- rail can reach 350km/h etc. People in the west world just has to know, not all internationals coming to your country is because their country is poor and has nothing to offer, at least for me, I just wanted to see the world and do not intend to change my nationality on my Passport.

Democracy means different things for different people but even democracy in the West is completely different from each other

" FREEDOM is relative!!" - that line hit me the most

I love the way they convey their thoughts, really reflects how good they are educated

I've been to all of the tier 1 cities and most of the tier 2 cities in China and personally I feel these opinions in the video is fairly representative at least for the major cities. And, just to set the record straight for those who'd like to say "it's not the people it's the government". The current membership of the CCP is around 100 millions, which is about 6.66% of the population. And if you consider their family and friends, you can almost say every single Chinese person has something to do with the Chinese government. Chinese government is literately of the people, by the people and for the people considering what it consists of and what it's done for the past few decades. It's the most efficient government that's best taken care its people on the planet for the past few decades. Period. On the other hand, as an outsider who's been in China for the last 10 years, this ubiquitous censorship in every corner of China is something I can never get over with. It's a lot more serious than what's shown in this interview. It's not just the "wall". It's when you go on to the internet and discuss anything, you'll see people using funny abbreviations or mask their words with pinyin mixed up with kanji/hanzi just so that they don't get reported. Don't get me wrong, it's not that they're gonna get reported to the government. Chinese government doesn't bother itself with any nobody. You can say whatever the heck you want because you're no influencer. It's the forums, the hosting services or the companies that have their own censorship teams just to stay away from trouble coming from the government. It's not like the Chinese government cares much about what's said on the forums, but when they do, somebody's gonna get a hurt real bad. And as any smart businessperson would do, publishers of any kind in China apply their own censorship. Your everyday Chinese person wouldn't even talk about this not because they're afraid, they've got used to that and don't feel it at all. And say, when their threads get locked or reported, they blame the forum, not the government. Still, if you're no Chinese citizen, none of this is really your business to mind. There are so many "non-democratic" countries in the world but they're just invisible to most people's eyes. You don't hear people talk about whether Singapore is democratic or not because 1. they're pro west; 2. they're modern 3. they're not as influential. China is exactly the opposite. It's not pro west, it's not as modern and it's a superpower. So it gets put in the spotlight and everyone seems to have an opinion about it even most never even been to the country or know one single Chinese person.

I'm born and raised in Germany, but my parents are Chinese. Growing up I used to be ashamed of my Chinese origin as the Western media influenced me a lot. I actually hated China. But my parents were always defending China, so I wanted to know more about the country, the people who are living their and their culture. I really wanted to know if all those things Western media taught us is true or not. After I graduated from "High School" I spent more than a year in China. And I started to love the country. It's so so so different from what I've been told. I really enjoyed the time and love the Chinese people. Of course there are some rude Chinese who are uncivilized etc. but this is just a minority. Now I'm traveling around the world. I've seen so many different places and people. And I have to say: The time in China is the best time I've ever had in life.There is no place I've felt that safe and peaceful and just happy. The culture is so interesting and the people are so respectful and lovely. Can't believe that I've been used to hate Chinese people and the country in the past. Now I'm visiting and exploring China a lot of times. I even started to study Chinese Studies at college to learn the language and learn more about the judicial and political system, the culture, history and so on. People need to stop listen to Media, stop judging and need to experience the country by themselves.

“I think China is very democracy, but it depends on your social status.”

Actually in the west, we are always being watch, not by the government but by all the big companies that get our data from Facebook (meta), google (alphabet), and so on, we give them our information necessary to know everything about us

Thank you for getting people's opinion and expressing to the world is a good way of connecting us all! I don't think everyone knows, but they would be shocked if they'd knew we are all connected...and related! There was a time not too long ago there were only a few of us and we stay together. But as our families grew bigger, we had to spread out for survival... Now we've lived on every continent of the world! And we've forgot that there was a time not too long ago, there were only a few of US! If people knew that everybody in the world is related... The world would be a lot kinder place to live, we are all different branches of the same tree! And in the end, all that really matters, is KINDNESS!!!

I live in europe and I think the biggest problem is, that western people tend to project their values to other countries like china. Like "we value democracy, and I believe it's also the best for your country, and if your country is not like that, then your country should change for better". When I was in china a friend told me: Everyone has values and opinions, but don't judge what's best for other people by your own subjective norms, because you don't even know if those people like it or not. What's good for you doesn't automatically mean, that it's also wanted by other people

As much as I love your content, please for the love of god improve the translation. So many nuances lost and so many sentences incoherent ("cleaning-up of the society"...? what?), as a native Chinese speaker who has been abroad for decades and understand the controversy of the issue, whenever I look at that English subtitle, I am in fear of viewers from other cultural backgrounds getting the wrong impression of Chinese people due to meanings lost in translation. Please exercise caution and due diligence in curation when selecting such topics. Edit: I would gladly help any Chinese translation efforts if need be as well

As an indian where every week there are protests in some part of country i cant imagine to live with no right to protest and speak against government. Speaking against government and still standing at 2 feets without going jail is another feeling.

I really like this video because it shows such a different opinion on the principle of democracy. Many "western" people think that they can define what democracy is or what is "right " for a political system. But I think that exactly this opinion is problematic. I, as a German, would probably not like the Chinese political system because I'm used to other standards. But I honestly think that I wouldn't like the American system as well. Being used to something and thinking that it is right (or not) doesn't mean it is right for everyone. This thinking, to have some "better" knowledge than others has led in the past to big problems, as everybody hopefully knows. Therefore I really like this insight and how Chinese look at their system from a Chinese way. As mentioned in the beginning this cannot be called an "unbiased" study but for a first insight this is actually quite helpful.

In conclusion, the younger Chinese generation has more confidence about their diplomacy and society. Nobody would know China more than Chinese themselves. Somebody always wants to enforce their own democrat way on China. I have to say just give up and get out of their way.

Textbooks in Middle and High School in China will teach students how to overthrow the government. The content is very detailed. No second country in the world dares to do so.

You should ask them which of their leaders did they vote for and how did Xi get elected President for life.